Why I’m voting for the first time in 2016

Bianca Bush looks out from the ballot booth as her father Michael Bush casts his vote during the U.S. presidential election at a poling station in New York, November 6, 2012. REUTERS/Keith Bedford

I’m 36 years old. I was born in America. And I’ve never voted.

Not in an election for city council. Or state legislature. Or even president of the United States.

As a fast-food worker, I felt that no one listened to me — either on the job or in the halls of power. The deck always seemed stacked against workers like me and in favor of big companies like my employers, McDonald’s and Burger King. After 18 years in the fast-food industry, I am still paid just $8 an hour and have to rely on public assistance to support my family.

I always thought, ‘Why vote when those in charge don’t even acknowledge the issues that affect me day to day?’

The “Fight for $15” campaign, however, has shown me that when workers speak up, some politicians listen. In just three years, we have won hard-to-believe victories from coast to coast.

New York fast-food workers won $15 an hour; Los Angeles, SeaTac, San Francisco and Seattle approved a $15 minimum wage for all workers. Home-care workers in Massachusetts and Oregon won $15 an hour. In Florida, elected leaders have even taken the “minimum-wage challenge” in which they committed themselves to living, for a few days, the life of an underpaid worker.

I have become active in this fight. So much so that I was asked to go to Washington to introduce President Barack Obama at a White House summit on the importance of workers joining together and speaking out on the job.

In my hometown of Kansas City, we fast-food workers won a pay increase to $13 an hour, from $7.65. Only to watch state legislators in Jefferson City, under pressure from the fast-food industry, repeal the measure and then overturn the governor’s veto. I felt they were taking food out of my daughters’ mouths.

These victories and near victories prove to fast-food workers like me that we do have power and influence. Across the country, there are nearly 64 million of us paid less than $15 an hour. Imagine if we all went to the polls to cast our votes. We could sway elections and put people in power who stand with us. Maybe those politicians in Jefferson City wouldn’t have been so quick to overturn my raise.

I grew up in South Carolina in a government housing project. Things were hard. My mother worked at Hardee’s, a fast-food restaurant. Still, some days I’d come home from school and the lights were cut off, or the fridge was empty.

I swore that as soon as I could work I would get a job and help provide for my family. And I did – at 16 years old. I started working at Taco Bell, and I’ve been in the fast-food industry ever since.

I assumed I’d leave and go back to school, but it never worked out that way. Today, I work at both McDonald’s and Burger King for a combined 65 to 70 hours a week, but I still have to turn to food stamps and rent assistance to help support my three beautiful young daughters.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after the strike and City Hall protests, workers marched on the Republican debate. The moderator’s very first question was for Donald Trump, asking him to respond to our Fight for $15 campaign. Every candidate asked about it came out against it. But we let them know that they have a year’s notice to come and get our vote by standing for $15 an hour and union rights.

We will continue striking and protesting and marching because we can’t wait any longer for fair pay and union rights. Next year, we’ll be voting — many, like me, for the first time.

Only about 60% of the eligible voters vote and these voters are split about 50/50 between the two parties. So, a third party which captured the remaining untapped vote would defeat both the democrats and republicans. The problem is that the 40% won’t vote because they fear responsibility. They are filled with the fear of their education or they see the injustices and know that everyone is corrupt, because no honest person could espouse some of the garbage that comes out of the two parties. Anyway, because the two parties split the voters about 50/50, small numbers of organized voters can make huge differences in who gets elected and what policies get implemented. I thought that was common knowledge. Of course, because I thought that was common knowledge, I also thought that most people in the US were masochists. The masochist part is likely true anyway. I suspect because they lack intellect and a natural curiosity, the fear and pain of being a slave is as close to feeling alive as they can get.

I certainly feel for the writer. If this is all you can make you need to get your spouse to work also. Unfortunately, the jobs we used to have for strong backs and no training are all automated now and you are caught in the education gap our system in the Umited States has thrust on us. Your generation is probably lost and should try to ensure that your children become educated to the best they can possibly be, and perhaps they will do better. This has worked for many groups, including the Vietnamese, and Mexican immigrants who started with nothing and worked very had at low wages, but their children children are getting better educations and their children will be better off than they were.

Supply and demand set both prices and wages. Common skills earn the least, rare talents in great demand earn the most. If voters demand a higher minimum wage, business will react by using fewer works via automation. Pushed far enough, prices will also move higher, making the net raise zero.

There is absolutely no reason that a good employee with 18 years on the job would still be at minimum wage. You need to look at yourself and your work habits.